CLEARWATER – Morton Plant and Mease Countryside hospitals recently enhanced their obstetrics units with a new program that provides board-certified, experienced obstetric doctors in the hospitals around the clock.

The hospitals also have opened Obstetric Urgent Care for expectant mothers who are experiencing an emergency.

Located adjacent to the Labor and Delivery units, the OB Urgent Care units at Morton Plant Hospital and Mease Countryside Hospital will be available on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week for pregnant women who either do not have an obstetrician, whose doctor is unavailable or has chosen to partner with the hospitalists, or who need emergency care.

“With hospital-based doctors and its own dedicated unit, this program provides an extra level of care and can offer more expedited emergency care to pregnant women,” said Marcia Albanese in a press release. Albanese is director of Women’s and Children’s Services for Morton Plant Mease Health Care.

Morton Plant and Mease Countryside’s OB/GYN Hospitalist Program provides around-the-clock access to board-certified physicians specifically trained in obstetrics and gynecology. Mease Countryside has offered the program since January, and Morton Plant began its program in June.

Through the program, physicians are always on site, ready to work with mothers in labor, whether the patient has a physician or to step in for standard and emergency procedures. The OB hospitalists will examine patients, evaluate and monitor the progress of labor, review lab results, handle emergencies and answer patients’ questions.